Today is the inaguration of the 44th president, Barack Hussein Obama.
I left home a little after 9AM, and the Vice President, Joe Biden were just taking an oath. A few minutes later, Barack did and started his speech. He was still making a speech when I arrived at work, and I stayed in the car listening to the speech until the end.
On the way to work, I was thinking to myself that how extraordinary today was. I used to say that while both Coasts are quite progressive and tolerant, because of more conservative center, I would never see either a woman or non-white president in my lifetime. But, I was proven wrong, and I am very glad I was. Though, I am sure dismal failure of Bush’s presidency helped a lot. He has a lot of work ahead, and I feel sorry for him since he is taking office in the worst possible time.
Also, it made me glad to live in America. This would have been only possible in America. Barack is half black, and his middle name is Hussein for Pete’s sake. We are sometimes critical of America, but despite of all the negative things we see and say about America, there is no better country thatn America.
Only in America, we have people from everywhere, every possible country, and live together with relatively small number of problems. Only in America, a minority with Muslim middle name could be elected to be the president. When other countries wrote us off, we showed them we still have what it takes and what makes America great. Only in America, truly anything is possible. America is the land of risk takers and pioneers. It makes sense that the center of creative and innovation is in Silicon Valley, in America. Current economic downturn shall pass, and when it does, America will come out stronger than before.